On film-based cameras from the 90’s, there was no indication of how your picture would turn out with your given settings in manual mode. So how were these settings determined manually without the convenience of LCD preview screens that we have on modern digital cameras?
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Knowledge and practice.
Photography books had charts which would suggest combinations of ISO, shutter speed and aperture depending on lighting conditions. Incrementing these variables produced predictable results.
Sometimes even math was involved.
Example: Say the photographer wanted to produce images of a helicopter on a sunny day and show the rotors as a blur over an arc of about 30 degrees.
The photographer would look up settings for a sunny day based on their film ISO. Then by finding out the rotor speed of the particular helicopter, the photographer calculates in how much time the rotor turns 30 degrees. Setting the camera’s shutter speed to match this time, they adjust aperture (or even select a different film ISO) to produce the desired exposure and depth of field.
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